Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Polaris

Seen here is the effect of the earth's rotation about it's north south axis. The brighter star to the right of center is Polaris, other wise known as the "Northern Star". Used for millennia for navigation because it is very close to "true north", as opposed to "magnetic north", which varies a fair amount depending on where on earth you utilize a magnetic compass. As you can see though, Polaris is not actually perfectly north pointing. Gyroscopic precession causes the earth to wobble predictably as time goes on, and the rotational axis changes on a gradual, but never ending track through the star field.

Polaris

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